


Never Smile At A Crocodile

by realityisoverrated



Series: Infinite Love [212]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, M/M, Polyamory, Polyfidelity, Smoaking billionaires, Toliver, flommy, olicity - Freeform
Language: Español
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:20:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28034550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realityisoverrated/pseuds/realityisoverrated
Summary: It's the family's first summer in Italy. Becca has some questions on her mind that prove how much like her mom she is.
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak, Tommy Merlyn/Felicity Smoak, Tommy Merlyn/Oliver Queen, Tommy Merlyn/Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Series: Infinite Love [212]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/381805
Comments: 52
Kudos: 125





	Never Smile At A Crocodile

**Author's Note:**

> This story depicts a polyamorous relationship between one woman and two men. If this is not something you are interested in, please stop and go no further.
> 
> This installment is 165/212. The chronological list for the series, with hyperlinks, can be found at  
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/11051019
> 
> Welcome to any new readers. The more the merrier.

Artwork by ligiapimenta

“Da?” Becca asked as she clung to Tommy’s neck in their pool.

“Yeah, baby,” Tommy said as he floated on his back. The bright blue sky didn’t have a cloud in it. If a sky could be happy, Tommy thought he was looking at one. So far, their first summer at the Italian villa Oliver had given to Tommy and Felicity for their tenth wedding anniversary had been as close to idyllic as Tommy could’ve wished. Everyone had been more relaxed since they’d arrived in Italy. Even Felicity’s remote work arrangement seemed to be successful. He reluctantly decided it was time to get the kids inside for lunch before they resembled boiled lobsters.

“Why do you have hair on your chest and mommy doesn’t?” Becca ran her fingers over his chest, pulling his attention away from his mental preparation of their lunchtime menu.

“It’s biology. Men are hairier than women,” Tommy answered.

“Why?” Becca asked.

At six, Becca had entered what Felicity was referring to as her _ace reporter_ phase. Everything was _why_ or _how come_? She was also sharing all the information she learned with everyone she met. Friend, family, or stranger, it didn’t matter to Becca as she shared her knowledge. Tommy loved his daughter with everything he was, but he couldn’t wait for her to transition out of this phase.

Tommy glanced around looking for Felicity. She was always better at discussing science with the kids than he was. He spotted Felicity and Oliver with the twins at the far end of the pool. They were trying to coax Nate away from the edge. Realizing he was on his own, Tommy went for the most straight forward answer. “All people have chemicals called hormones inside them to make their bodies work. Men have a lot of something called testosterone. It makes them hairier than women.”

“Why doesn’t daddy have as much hair as you?” Becca asked.

Tommy didn’t want to tell their daughter that most of Oliver’s hair follicles had been replaced by scar tissue. He also suspected, even without the scar tissue, Oliver would still not be as hairy as he was. There was a time when Tommy had been jealous of Oliver’s chest hair. Tommy had been late to the puberty party and his lack of body hair had been a point of ridicule with his dad. Malcolm saw his lack of body hair as a sign of Tommy’s weakness and desire for Oliver. Eventually, Tommy had more than made up for his lack of body hair in high school. Oliver had been pleasantly surprised when he returned after five years to see Tommy’s chest covered in hair. Tommy had never given into the trend of waxing his body. He had waited a long time for his chest hair and he never saw the appeal of ripping it out by the roots. He did some light manscaping, but that’s as far as he went. Felicity and Oliver never complained, and they were the only two that mattered. “Daddy does have hair on his chest, it’s just blonde and harder to see.”

Becca nodded her head. “He doesn’t have more because of his boo boos.”

Tommy wondered if she’d had this conversation with Oliver or Felicity already and was using him to verify what they told her. Becca wasn’t a technical genius, but it was looking more and more like she was going to be more like her mom than her dads in the brains department. Becca was a cunning strategist, and her parents were going to be as good as doomed when she decided to use her abilities for things far more rebellious than questions about body hair. “Yes, that’s right.”

“Da?” Becca asked softly.

“Yes, baby,” Tommy said, bracing himself for her next topic.

“Do daddy’s boo boos hurt?”

Tommy stood up and held Becca against his chest. He tipped her chin until she was looking at him. “Daddy’s boo boos don’t hurt. His scars show that his body healed.” He gently lifted her knee and pointed to a scar she received after falling from her bike. “Does this scar hurt you?”

Becca shook her head. “Not anymore. It hurt when I fell. I cried.”

“I remember. You were very brave when daddy cleaned it and put a band aid on it.”

“You kissed it better,” Becca said with a smile. “Did daddy cry when he got his boo boos?”

Tommy swallowed heavily. He didn’t like thinking about how Oliver had gotten his scars and how there was no one there to comfort him when he’d gotten them. “It’s natural to cry when we get hurt. I’m sure your daddy cried a little bit too.”

“Did you kiss them better?” she asked.

“I wasn’t there when he got them, sweetheart.” When her face fell with worry, he added, “I kiss them now to make up for it.”

“Even the shark bite?” she asked.

“Especially the shark bite,” he said.

“I would cry if a shark bit me,” Becca informed him.

Tommy remembered when Oliver had held him in the dark and told him about the shark bite. Tommy hadn’t been shocked when Oliver said that he hadn’t felt any pain when the shark bit him, but it was still incredible to believe. Oliver’s body had needed him to focus on getting away from the shark and onto dry land. Intense pain would’ve only made it harder for Oliver to concentrate on saving his own life. He hadn’t felt any pain until he’d collapsed on the beach. Once Oliver made it to the beach, he was surrounded by something far more dangerous than the shark, men. The human predators Oliver encountered during his time away had caused more damage than the predator from the deep. The shark had acted on instinct not malice. The humans had enjoyed hurting Oliver. Tommy still struggled finding peace with the men and women who had hurt his husband. He wouldn’t mind holding Amanda Waller’s head under water for a minute to see how much she enjoyed it.

“Me too,” Tommy said, placing a kiss to Becca’s cheek. “Are you ready for lunch?”

Becca nodded, “I want to swim to the steps by myself.”

Tommy let go and watched Becca swim away. “Lunch,” he announced to the rest of the family.

“Da?” Becca asked as she supervised her dads making sandwiches.

“Yes, darling,” Tommy answered as he cut a sandwich in half.

“Bobby’s a boy. Why doesn’t he have any hair on his chest?”

Oliver chuckled softly at his side. Tommy tapped him with his elbow. The last thing they needed was for them both to start laughing at Becca’s question.

“I haven’t gone through puberty,” Bobby answered without looking up from the book he was reading.

“What’s pu-ber-ty?” Becca asked her brother.

“It’s what happens to make boys and girls into men and women, so they can have babies,” Bobby answered. “It usually happens around twelve or thirteen.”

Becca’s eyes went wide. “Is Bobby having a baby when he’s twelve?”

“No,” Oliver said firmly. “Your brother isn’t having a baby at twelve.”

“You had a baby at twelve,” Becca said to Oliver.

“I did not,” Oliver said with shock.

She nodded her head vehemently. “William.”

Oliver laughed. “I was young, but I wasn’t twelve. I was twenty-three when your brother was born.”

“Is that when you went through pu-ber-ty?” Becca asked.

Tommy and Felicity both snorted.

“No, but it is when your da went through puberty,” Oliver teased.

Tommy laughed. His husband’s assessment wasn’t entirely off. He couldn’t grow anything that remotely resembled a beard until he was at least twenty-three.

“If you’re William’s daddy and our daddy, why isn’t da William’s da?” Becca asked Oliver.

“Because Samantha is William’s mom,” Oliver said.

“Okay,” Becca said, accepting Oliver’s explanation. She stepped between Oliver and Tommy and wrapped an arm around each of their waists. “I’m glad that Samantha isn’t my mommy. I like my mommy and I’d miss having a da and a daddy.”

“We’re glad your mom is your mom too,” Oliver said. He gently tugged on the end of her braid. “Lunch is ready. Go wash your hands. You too Bobby.”

Becca skipped away. Bobby, his nose still buried in the book he was reading, trailed after his sister.

Oliver kissed Tommy’s temple. “Has she been like this all morning?”

“We had a lovely discussion about chest hair, testosterone and shark bites during our swim,” Tommy said. His hand slipped beneath Oliver’s shirt and rested over the shark bite. “She’s asking about how much your scars hurt again.”

Oliver sighed. “I wish she wouldn’t worry.”

Felicity looked up from preparing the twins’ lunch and shook her head. “With the two of you for dads, I think there’s zero chance she won’t be a worrier.”

“She shouldn’t be worrying about things that happened twenty years ago.” Oliver placed Bobby and Becca’s sandwiches onto the table.

“Da?” Becca asked as she skipped back into the room.

“Yes, pumpkin,” Tommy said as he held out her chair.

“Can we go to the beach and skip stones after lunch?”

“I think that’s an excellent plan,” Tommy said, relieved that secondary sex characteristics were no longer her topic of interest.

Tommy turned off the bathroom light and smiled at the picture of his husband and wife sitting up in bed reading. Felicity was sitting in Tommy’s spot as she read and answered emails. Oliver was reading a battered copy of _Crime and Punishment_ from the library that had come with the house. He approached Oliver’s side of the bed and nudged his husband. “Shove over.”

Oliver moved to the middle of the bed and lifted his arm. Tommy shifted until he was tucked against Oliver’s side with his head resting on his husband’s chest. His fingers slid beneath Oliver’s t-shirt and absently traced along his scars. It had been a while since Tommy had given the scars much thought. They were no different than the color of Oliver’s eyes or the dimples in his smile – they just were. There had been a time when Tommy obsessed over every slash, puncture, burn, and gunshot that marred Oliver’s flesh. Unlike Felicity, Tommy had not been able to see the scars as a testament of Oliver’s strength and ability to survive. To Tommy, the scars were a sign of how much suffering Oliver had endured. He would stay awake at night wondering how many times Oliver had cried out in his pain and delirium and received no comfort. There were times when Tommy would try to overwrite the pain with his tender kisses – desperate for Oliver to know that his love was stronger than any blow he’d ever received.

Oliver’s fingers stilled in Tommy’s hair. He tugged gently until Tommy’s head tilted back. Oliver ran his thumb over Tommy’s forehead. “You know, you’re not supposed to worry about things that happened twenty years ago either.”

Tommy smiled sheepishly. “I know, but sometimes I can’t help it.” His fingers traced Oliver’s shark bite. After Hong Kong, Tommy had been woken by nightmares of Oliver’s lifeless body being consumed by sharks and fish. It hadn’t been enough that Oliver had been lost to him forever, his brain had to torture him too. Over and over he relived Oliver’s last moments as his lungs filled with water and he sank to the bottom of the sea to become a meal for the creatures of the deep. The shark bite was proof of how close Tommy’s nightmares had been to becoming reality.

“It only took one bite for the shark to realize I don’t taste very good,” Oliver said with a grin.

Felicity snickered. “You’re no Pinot, that’s for sure.”

All three laughed as they remembered a conversation that seemed a lifetime ago.

Tommy leaned across Oliver and squeezed Felicity’s knee. “Babe, how important are those emails?”

Felicity lowered the lid of her laptop and removed her glasses. “Nothing that can’t wait until morning.”

“Good,” Tommy said as he swung his leg over Oliver’s waist. He ran his hands up Oliver’s chest. “I’ve got naked plans for us.”

“Mommy?” Becca called out as she knocked on their bedroom door.

Tommy groaned and dropped his head to Oliver’s chest. Oliver chuckled as he rubbed his husband’s back. Tommy shifted off Oliver and dropped by his side, pulling the blanket over their laps.

“Come in, baby,” Felicity said.

Their bedroom door opened, and Becca entered clutching her teddy bear. Her eyes were red, and she wiped them with the back of her hand. “I had a bad dream,” she announced.

“You did?” Oliver asked, holding out his hand to her. “Do you want to tell us about it?”

Becca climbed into their bed and crawled into Oliver’s open arms. “A shark was trying to eat me.”

“That must’ve been very scary,” Oliver said sympathetically as he rubbed circles against Becca’s back.

“It was dark, and I couldn’t find you, or da, or mommy.” Becca hiccupped.

“Well, you found us now,” Felicity said as she stroked Becca’s head. “Everyone is safe.”

“What if the shark comes back for daddy?” Becca asked around another hiccup.

“Why would the shark come back for me?” Oliver asked. “It was a long time ago and sharks don’t have memories like people do.”

Becca rubbed at the tears in her eyes. “The crocodile keeps trying to eat Captain Hook.”

“Sharks don’t hunt people, baby. They would much prefer to eat other things. When they do bite people, it’s because they think the person is a seal or something else they like to eat. Once that shark bit your daddy, he realized it was a mistake and let him go,” Felicity tried to explain.

Becca looked at Oliver with tears in her eyes. She stroked his stubbled cheek. “But it still hurt daddy, even if it was a mistake.”

“Rebecca,” Oliver said gently but firmly, “I need you to listen to me. You’re right. It did hurt, but it was a long time ago and it doesn’t hurt anymore. The shark isn’t going to hurt me again.”

“Da and mommy weren’t there to kiss it better,” Becca said, her hand drifting over his t-shirt where the scar was located.

“They weren’t with me on the island,” Oliver said, “but they would’ve if they’d been there.”

“Can I kiss it better now?” Becca asked.

Oliver lifted his t-shirt and revealed the top of the bite mark. Becca leaned over to press a quick kiss to the scar. She looked at Felicity. “Now you kiss it mommy.” Felicity placed a kiss to Oliver’s side. “Now you, da,” Becca instructed. Tommy kissed Oliver’s scar too. “Is that better?” Becca asked Oliver.

Oliver lifted Becca back into his arms. “Thank you, sweetheart. I feel much better.”

“Can I sleep with you tonight?” Becca asked.

“May I,” Tommy corrected.

“May I sleep with you tonight?” Becca asked again.

“Yes,” Oliver answered.

“Do you want to use the bathroom before we turn off the lights?” Felicity said.

“No, thank you,” Becca said as she got beneath the blankets.

“Da, will you sing to me?” Becca asked as she cuddled against Felicity.

“What would you like me to sing?” Tommy asked.

“Never smile at a crocodile,” Becca said through a giggle.

Oliver tickled Becca’s side and she squealed with laughter as she tried to get away. “You’re a silly girl,” he said when his fingers stilled.

Becca brushed the hair from her eyes and settled between Oliver and Felicity. “Never smile at a crocodile,” she sang sweetly.

“No, you can’t get friendly with a crocodile,” Felicity continued as she turned off her light.

“Don’t be taken in by his welcome grin,” Tommy joined in.

Oliver winked at his daughter before joining in on the next line. “He’s imagining how well you’d fit within his skin.”

Tommy turned off his bedside lamp as they continued to sing about a man-eating Disney crocodile. He wondered if they should be concerned with having a six-year-old with a dark sense of humor, but he decided his daughter was onto something when he realized his own worries about Oliver’s old wounds were fading further away with each stanza they sang.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Your kudos and comments are what keep me writing and are always appreciated.
> 
> I hope this installment finds all of you well and safe. I have not abandoned Children of The Green Arrow or you. The next chapter is finished, but I'm struggling with a scene that isn't working the way I want. Since I've heard from several of you who were concerned for my health and the series, I thought I'd post a fic I've had finished to tide you over until the next chapter of COTGA is finished.
> 
> Come say hi to me on tumblr. I'm always happy to answer questions about this verse or anything else Arrow. http://realityisoverrated-fic.tumblr.comThank you for reading. Your kudos and comments are what keep me writing and are always appreciated.


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